The Bus Couldn't Go Anywhere

🌡️ Weather: 25-31°C (77-88°F). Cool and rainy. TMD heavy rain warning continues through July 30. Flash flood risk. A good day to stay close to home.

🌫️ Air Quality: 68-124 (Good to Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups). At the lower end, clean air.

🗞️ TOP STORY

A BANGKOK CITY BUS GOT STUCK ACROSS ACTIVE RAILWAY TRACKS AT RATCHAPRAROP CROSSING. THE VIDEO WENT VIRAL.

BMTA route 204, an air-conditioned city bus, stopped directly across the railway tracks at the Ratchaprarop level crossing on July 23. Video footage captured by a motorist spread rapidly on social media showing the bus blocking the tracks while the driver waited for traffic ahead to clear. The bus, number 8-55128, sat straddled across the rail line while a queue of vehicles built up around it. The Bangkok Mass Transit Authority apologized publicly and confirmed that disciplinary action was taken against the driver.

The Ratchaprarop crossing is one of the busiest level crossings in central Bangkok, where road traffic and rail traffic share the same space with barriers that lower when a train is approaching. The bus driver appears to have entered the crossing during heavy traffic and become trapped when vehicles ahead stopped moving. Whether a train was approaching at the time has not been confirmed. The BMTA's quick apology and the driver's discipline suggest the authority recognized the severity immediately.

Bottom line: Nobody was hurt. The bus was moved. The driver has been disciplined. But the image of a city bus sitting across active railway tracks in central Bangkok is the kind of visual that stays with you. If you drive in Bangkok, the rule at level crossings is simple: do not enter unless you can see clear space on the other side. If traffic is stopped ahead of the tracks, wait before the barrier. The bus driver forgot that rule. The video made sure nobody else will.

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A MICHELIN TWO-STAR RESTAURANT IN SEOUL IS FACING PROSECUTION FOR SERVING DESSERTS DECORATED WITH ANTS IMPORTED FROM THAILAND.

South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety confirmed that the owner of a Michelin two-star restaurant in Seoul is under investigation for importing live ants from Thailand and the United States and using them as edible decoration on fine-dining desserts. The ants were served as garnish to customers paying premium prices for multi-course tasting menus. The investigation centers on whether the insects met South Korean food safety and import regulations, which require all food ingredients to pass through formal customs and health screening processes.

The Thailand connection is the detail that makes the story land here. Thai ants, shipped internationally, decorated on Korean fine dining plates, and now the subject of a criminal food safety investigation. The chef presumably chose Thai ants for their flavor, size or visual appeal, which is either a compliment to Thai biodiversity or a sentence that should never have needed to be written. Insect consumption is normalized in Thailand, where roasted crickets, silkworm larvae and bamboo worms are sold at markets across the country. But exporting live ants to a Michelin restaurant in Seoul without proper import documentation is a different category entirely. The case raises questions about how far the global fine-dining obsession with novelty ingredients extends before someone checks whether the supply chain is legal.

Bottom line: Thai ants on a Michelin plate in Seoul, the chef imported them, and then the government investigated. And somewhere in Thailand, a colony of ants is having the most unexpected career trajectory of 2026.

⚡ QUICK HITS

A French man was shot and killed by police in Bangkok after a knife rampage. Officers responded after the man attacked multiple people with a knife on July 25. Police used lethal force to stop the attack. A serious incident that ended with one fatality. The investigation is ongoing.

Operation Dragon Nest: CIB raided a luxury hotel in Nonthaburi. Chinese and Myanmar nationals arrested. Drugs, gambling equipment and more than 200 items seized. The enforcement crackdown found another operation running from a luxury property.

28-year-old Thai woman arrested in Japan with crystal meth hidden in coffee sachets. Her parents told Thai media on July 26 that their daughter Juthathip was unknowingly recruited by a drug trafficking network. The family is appealing for government assistance.

Today is King Vajiralongkorn's Birthday. National holiday. Government offices and banks closed. Tomorrow is Asanha Bucha Day. Thursday is Khao Phansa. Three holidays in a row.

SRT Bangkok Connex launches Friday. Bangkok to Ayutthaya. Air-conditioned. Daily. Four days away.

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🍽️ SPOT OF THE DAY

100 MAHASETH

⚠️ Today is a public holiday. Check opening hours before heading out.

100 Mahaseth takes the part of the animal most restaurants throw away and turns it into the reason you came. Chef Chalee Kader built the restaurant around a nose-to-tail philosophy using beef and pork sourced exclusively from small Thai farms, dry-aged in a glass cabinet that sits in the corner of the dining room like a statement of intent. The Michelin Guide gave it a Plate recognition, praising the chef's care in balancing flavors and presenting elevated Isaan fare from locally sourced ingredients. The 50 Best Discovery listing described the flavors as "just-harvested feasts on rural farms and families sharing sweet, smoky comfort food in remote villages."

The complimentary Isaan set arrives before you order: somtam, crispy pork skin with Thai chimichurri and chaeo sauce. The charcoal-roasted bone marrow is the dish that defines the menu, rich and smoky with a Thai-style dipping sauce. The dry-aged beef specials are written on a blackboard and change daily. The fermented pork ribs carry a funky depth that comes from the aging process. The coconut ice cream sandwich with sticky rice closes the meal. The dining room is industrial-rustic: flagstone floors, rattan lamp shades, pop art on the walls. The crowd draws locals, expats and, according to regulars, the occasional Bangkok chef looking for ideas.

→ See the menu and find them here ←

Insider tip: check the blackboard for aged steak specials before ordering off the menu. The bone marrow and the fermented pork ribs are the two dishes that tell you what this kitchen does differently from everywhere else.

📍 100 Maha Set Road, Si Phraya, Bang Rak, Bangkok 10500
📞 02 235 0023
🕐 Daily 11:30AM-10:30PM
⭐ Michelin Guide Plate | 50 Best Discovery
💰 ฿900-1,500+ per person

Always check opening times before heading out, especially during holiday periods.

📅 WHAT'S ON

See you tomorrow morning.

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